Tag Archives: writing

–While you were awayPeople continued to want–While you were awayPeople stressed over latte–While you were awayPeople blamed the one percent–While you were awayWall Street didn’t miss a beat–While you were awayFamilies ignored one another–While you were awaySociety forgot to mention–The risk involvedThe loss enduredThe humanity destroyed–We speak rarely of a certain realityOne the media voice won’t exploitA truth that evades the common eye–While you were awayPeople do not understand–Haunted, windows might closeShadows to follow your mindMemory, nightmares designedTears remain your real lows–While you were awayBrother, sister, friend, foe–We were told about youSearching the grain of your …That sheltered your life inSwathed cocoon like revues–While you were awayPeople wail their goodbyes–We soar with freedom, a Nation, a societyWhile eagle’s wings … restore our sanity!

Soldiers bore the weight of the flag-draped coffin,A sight seen too often;Parents’ were grieving,For a child not breathing,As the sun slipped beneath the darkening sky,And all that remained was, “Why?”

Troops surrounded by enemy fire,As the fateful moments became more dire,A weapon-wielding patriot discharged a round,Only to merge with the dusty ground.

Proud to ride the wings of the brave,Deplaning among an eager conclave,Physically prepared with mental certitude,The new fighter marched on with numbing fortitude.

A new recruit raises their hand to be heard,Listening to the call to battle; still a child, a fledgling bird,Watching the Union Jack or Star Spangled Banner,Waving with the wind ‘til the flag fades to amber.

A pumpkin knocked at my doorI was shocked, I fell to the floorThe pumpkin had a toothless grinIn the end I asked him to come inThe pumpkin shook my handAnd said I knew you’d understandI wanted to come to your partyI was all aloneWith witches and ghostsThey frightened meIt’s you I’d rather seeSomeone warm and brightOn this Halloween nightSo what have we got for teaTrick or treatIt will be a whisky for meGillian and Thomas Sims

She watched her oppressorEvery move he made was important to herAs she planned her escape, his demiseFreedom, finally, from the emptiness in her eyes.Drunk on lust and whiskey, he attackedShe bore the pain and performed the unthinkable acts.No longer afraid,She attacked him as he stumbled away.His anger erupted, the vicious swings cameWithout fear, she picks up his gun – takes aimBullets pierced the night and his blood rained.He was dead in an instant,But she paused only to wipe off her fingerprints.She walked away from that placeRenewed hope, and for the first time in years, a smile on her face.

Thank you for this opportunity. For the last few years, all of my poems have been written, and put on my hard-drive, never to be seen by anyone but me. I realize now, that although protecting myself from critique, I was also violating the basics of being a writer – we write for ourselves, but we also write for others.

She stood there by the ocean,The breeze gently lifted her hair.Of that seagull just above her,She was totally unaware.Seemingly floating in the sky,The seagull’s wings were still.I think it paused to take good aim,And drop a mess at will.Too late she looked above her head,Where the seagull hovered now.Then as I watched in horror,Bird droppings hit her brow.Her scream pierced the balmy air.Splat! The stuff hit her face.Then she saw my camera and me,And stomped off in disgrace.

As long as there have been poets, there have been love poems. After all, if love cannot inspire, what can? Our minds turn to love on special anniversaries, Valentine’s Day and weddings, but how to express it? We are not all blessed with the gift of poetic words. The list below may include a romantic love poems for him or a love poem for her to serve the occasion but don’t pretend it’s yours. You will look very foolish when you are found out. But love tends to do that to us anyway.

10. ‘Wild Nights’ by Emily Dickinson

A leading American poet (1830 – 1836), she is one of the most accessible and popular poets. This selection is not typical of her output and is surprisingly passionate for a woman of those times. Dickinson led a secluded life and it’s not certain for whom these lines were intended, ‘might I but moor tonight with thee’. Biographers believe that she may have created a fantasy for herself. But this may also have been a love poem for a man.

Futile the windsTo a heart in port,Done with the compass,Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden!Ah! the sea!Might I but moorTo-night in thee!

9. ‘We Are Made One with What We Touch and See’ by Oscar Wilde

Of course, it’s well known that Wilde’s romantic exploits got him into trouble, resulting in a two-year sentence for hard labour. He’s better known for his comedic plays and witty quotes than for his poems. This poem has the joyful line; ‘we draw the spring into our hearts and feel that life is good’. Read the full poem.

We shall be notes in that great SymphonyWhose cadence circles through the rhythmic spheres,And all the live World’s throbbing heart shall beOne with our heart, the stealthy creeping yearsHave lost their terrors now, we shall not die,The Universe itself shall be our Immortality!

8. ‘Bright Star’ by John Keats

A leading figure amongst the English Romantic poets, many of Keats’ poems are melancholic. He was a doomed man, dying of TB at the age of 26 in a house in Rome where he had gone to improve his health. The house, next to the Spanish Steps, is now a museum dedicated to his life and the life of Shelley. He wrote his poetry in a brief five-year period. Sensual love is celebrated in the line, ‘pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast’.

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art–Not in lone splendour hung aloft the nightAnd watching, with eternal lids apart,Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,The moving waters at their priestlike taskOf pure ablution round earth’s human shores,Or gazing on the new soft-fallen maskOf snow upon the mountains and the moors–No–yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,And so live ever–or else swoon to death.

7. ‘Another Valentine’ by Wendy Cope

This is from the point of view of a couple that have been together a long time. At first, Cope seems slightly resentful that she is being forced into making a romantic declaration just because a certain date in the calendar demands it, but she gets into the spirit of the occasion and her love for her man shines through. They are sure of each other, as shown by ‘you know I’m yours and I know you are mine’. It is more difficult to find love poems for him, but “Another Valentine” is just that.

Today we are obliged to be romanticAnd think of yet another valentine.We know the rules and we are both pedantic:Today’s the day we have to be romantic.Our love is old and sure, not new and frantic.You know I’m yours and I know you are mine.And saying that has made me feel romantic,My dearest love, my darling valentine.

6. ‘A Drinking Song’ by W.B. Yeats

The title does not suggest a love poem and it’s debatable as to how much alcohol consumption is playing a part! Nevertheless, it is a romantic poem. The opening lines are ‘wine comes in at the mouth and love comes in at the eye’ Let’s hope they don’t regret it in the morning.

Wine comes in at the mouthAnd love comes in at the eye;That’s all we shall know for truthBefore we grow old and die.I lift the glass to my mouth,I look at you, and I sigh.

5. ‘Valentine’ by John Fuller

Perhaps the least well known poet on the list, he is an English writer, born in 1937, and is the son of the feted poet, Roy Fuller. This is a sensual poem, which celebrates the physical features of his beloved; ‘I like it when you tilt your cheek up’. It’s a gently teasing poem with fun lines such as ‘I’d like to find you in the shower and chase the soap for half an hour’. Read the full poem.

The things about you I appreciate may seem indelicate:I’d like to find you in the showerAnd chase the soap for half an hour.I’d like to have you in my power and see your eyes dilate.I’d like to have your back to scourAnd other parts to lubricate.Sometimes I feel it is my fateTo chase you screaming up a tower or make you cowerBy asking you to differentiate Nietzsche from Schopenhauer.I’d like to successfully guess your weight and win you at a féte.I’d like to offer you a flower.

4. ‘Love Is’ by Adrian Henri

The late Henri, along with his fellow Liverpool poets, Roger McGough and Brian Patten, brought poetry to a new generation in their 1967 anthology, ‘The Mersey Sound’. It’s a poem about everyday love between everyday people but is strangely touching. ‘Love is a fan club with only two fans’ and ‘love is what happens when the music stops’.

Love is…Love is feeling cold in the back of vansLove is a fanclub with only two fansLove is walking holding paintstained handsLove is.Love is fish and chips on winter nightsLove is blankets full of strange delightsLove is when you don’t put out the lightLove isLove is the presents in Christmas shopsLove is when you’re feeling Top of the PopsLove is what happens when the music stopsLove isLove is white panties lying all forlornLove is pink nightdresses still slightly warmLove is when you have to leave at dawnLove isLove is you and love is meLove is prison and love is freeLove’s what’s there when you are away from meLove is…

3. ‘How Do I Love Thee’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Browning had the advantage of a good education, not given to most Victorian women in England. She blossomed as a poet and found love with fellow writer, Robert Browning. They married against her father’s wishes and eloped to Italy. It doesn’t get any more romantic than that. The opening lines to this romantic love poem are often quoted; ‘how do I love thee, let me count the ways’.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of Being and ideal Grace.I love thee to the level of everyday’sMost quiet need, by sun and candle-light.I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.I love thee with a passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,I shall but love thee better after death.

2. ‘A Red, Red Rose’ by Robert Burns

This is both a poem and a song, first published in 1794. Burns is one of the most famous Scotsmen in the world and the anniversary of his birth, January 25th, is celebrated around the world with recitations, whiskey and haggis (for those that can stomach it). Burns Night undoubtedly features this romantic poem and the lines, ‘O, my love is like a red, red, rose, that is newly sprung in June’.

1. ‘Love Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare

The most revered playwright in history also found time to compose 154 sonnets, published in 1609. The sonnets are a great source for quotations on the theme of romance, love and passion. He was constantly preoccupied with the relationships between men and women in his writing. Number 130 glories in lines, such as ‘and yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare’.

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare.

The rains came todayAmidst news of government shutdowns.In a mid-town caféAll the faces held practiced frowns,Voices lingered,High pitched with banters pledged“Well I figured,”Shouted a nearby man on the edge.

When the skies lit upThere wasn’t any discussion of reprieve.I could reach for my cupOf java while around the room a sieve,A genuine distasteReactive politics by those thought elite.Withheld ideals erasedWhile outside quiet rains began to isolate

See, there is beautyWhen in and around me economics falterSomehow I feel pityA kind soul is caught in rains without shelterIn the morningA burst of sunlight will endure the horizonAnd while wakingOur society is left to once again find reason

Yet in the midst of cloudy judgment and scattered reignsMight our heart and soul appreciate just the simple rains

When you look upon the written wordHow do you read what thought was sentIt isn’t the type or print that can influenceIt is our own emotion, times we spent.

For black and white, possibly color addedThe pages cannot give us the intent of heartSo why do we feel the words deep withinCan we know the end, reading from the start.

As we read the words that another has sharedWe feel with the thoughts that we put to wordNot like a recording where we feel their emotionThe words read give us any emotion that is stirred.

Each has a reason why we read someone’s wordAnd I’m thankful for those that return to read mineIf I could put my emotion clearly into each word I writeYou’d understand the reason for each letter of a line.

The Lighthouse Award

Manners Bear And Friends by Gillian Sims

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Themes used on this website

January 1st - New Year
January 25th - Robert Burns ( burns night )
February 14th - Valentines day
March 16th - 19th - St Patricks day
March 18th - Mothers day
April 8th - Easter Sunday
April 23rd - St Georges da
June 17th - Fathers day
September 23rd - Harvest Festival
October 4th - National poetry day
October 5th-8th - Goose Fair
October 31st - Halloween
November 5th - Bonfire night
November 11th - Remembrance day
December 25th - Christmas
December 31st - Hogmanay
Please send any poetry or pictures
To feature in any of these themes
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Community book give away

Gillian Sims gave free books to members of her community on Tuesday 23rd October. 2012
The Manners collection was published in 2009.
This book was at the heart of the community on Tuesday where it was first launched at the Chase library three years ago.
Many children will have the pleasure of reading the light-hearted poetry about manners and will engage with the fun characters while they tell their tales.
Photos and books were exchanged in the community,and all were delighted to receive the books.